Will Pennsylvania regulate tanning parlors, but not tattoo joints?

Friday's letter to the editor could not have come from a more qualified source.

Dr. Stephen Purcell of Upper Macungie Township is a physician at Advanced Dermatology Associates, based in Allentown with branch or satellite offices in Bethlehem, Kutztown and Pottsville.

He sees almost nothing but skin problems, including cancer, many of them caused by ultraviolet light, either from the sun or in the massive doses available in the tanning booths or tanning beds operated by commercial tanning parlors.

Purcell called for support of Senate Bill 349, sponsored by state Sen. Pat Browne, R-Lehigh, Northampton and Monroe counties. It passed 48-1 last October in the Senate, but is now mired in the House, where it was tabled in December.

"If passed," Purcell's letter said, "this bill will require on-site parental consent and signature before indoor tanning for minors. It will also put in place at least minimum safety standards at tanning salons."

I took a look at SB 349 and it does all that, plus something I think is even more important. It requires an annual state license for any enterprise "where a tanning device is used for a fee, membership dues ... or any other compensation."

No one, says SB 349, "shall ... establish, maintain or operate a tanning facility without first having obtained a license issued by the [state Department of Health]."

Violation of the licensing or other provisions by a commercial tanning parlor would be a misdemeanor, meaning a potential for doing time in a place where neither the sun nor a tanning booth can shine — although there is an ample availability of tattoos in such places, as you can see just by visiting any jail or prison.

That was the first thing that came to mind when I saw Purcell's letter. Why would Browne, Purcell or anyone else get excited about tanning parlors without also being concerned about commercial tattoo operations?

As I reported last year, tattoo joints are almost completely unregulated in Pennsylvania. I checked Friday with state Department of Health spokeswoman Holly Senior to see if that's still the case.

"Unfortunately, nothing has changed," she said.

You do need a state license to braid hair in Pennsylvania. You also must have one to color other people's fingernails, to sell cemetery plots, to help somebody with a speech problem, or to do dozens of other seemingly innocuous tasks.

No state license is needed for commercial tattooing, however, even though officials at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control told me last year that tattoos are notorious for transmitting HIV (the virus that causes AIDS), tuberculosis, hepatitis and MRSA, also called the "flesh-eating disease."

Most states require licenses or other regulations, the CDC said, but in the main, the only restriction in Pennsylvania is that tattoo joints cannot take money for giving children tattoos.

Pennsylvania's cosmetologists, who must be licensed and trained, are prohibited from using tattoo techniques as a form of makeup. A tattoo "artist" down the street, however, can carve up a customer's face with his ink and needles without any hassle.

Somebody in Harrisburg, it seems, wants to protect tattoo joints from both regulation and competition.

I contacted the offices of both Dr. Purcell and Sen. Browne to ask why such irrational priorities seem to prevail, but neither got back to me on that.

Personally, I have had no experience with either tanning booths or tattoo joints.

I get more sun than is good for me, I'm sure, by riding bicycles and motorcycles, but primarily on my face, my bald spot and my arms, despite the occasional use of sun blockers. The rest of my body is approximately the shade of wet plaster of Paris, so I'm sure Purcell would be proud of me.

I do have one tattoo, which I always try to mention to keep the tattoo freaks from lynching me. (You wouldn't believe how upset the tattoo crowd gets, from all over America, just because I say they apparently are emulating the lowlifes we find where there is the heaviest concentration of tattooing — pimps, prostitutes, prison inmates, pugs and street gangs.)

My tattoo is a little blue dot in the middle of my right palm, the result of jabbing myself with a pencil several decades ago.

Speaking of tattoos, Bucks County was abuzz this past week with the case of "tattoo artist" Walter Meyerle, who now is looking at a few hundred years in prison because of what happened in connection with the commercial tattoo shop he operated in his Falls Township home.

Meyerle, 35, was found guilty, in a nonjury trial by Judge Diane Gibbons, on 170 criminal counts ranging from a scheme to break out of jail to illegal tattooing to sexual offenses against 15 children, from 4 to 17 years old, boys and girls.

The illegal tattooing charge was based on evidence that Meyerle gave a 14-year-old girl a tattoo — on her private parts — in return for sex.

The happy news for Meyerle is that he is in no danger of losing his license to give tattoos. He never needed one, and I'm sure his skills will be appreciated where he'll be living from now on.